Founders, It’s Time to Ask for Help + Fundraising Fieldnotes - 1.14.22

Let's review this powerful skill for founders...

January 14, 2022

Hey - it’s Jason Yeh 🕺🏻

This is my Friday recap of thoughts I’ve had while helping founders solve their fundraising challenges this past week (1.14.22)

If you have any questions, please reply! I try to get to every comment/question I get :)

On to the Fieldnotes for 1.14.22…

Founders, It’s Time to Ask for Help

To start this week, I need to ask for some help from you, dear readers. Partially, because it’s a great example to lead with for this essay, but more because…I actually need help.

Here’s the deal -  in 2021 I was able to help a ton of founders through my work at Adamant Ventures, including this newsletter. In 2022, I hope to do much more with an assist from you.

If my work has helped you in any way… 

Please share this newsletter with three people and recommend they subscribe.

To make it as easy as possible, here’s some email copy you can use:

Subject: weekly reading for you

Body: Hey [NAME] - I subscribe to this great newsletter for founders that I think is really insightful. The last post was about the power of asking for help. In it they asked for our help sharing the newsletter with others. No brainer for me to return the favor because I’ve found it super helpful.

It’s written by an ex-VC and former venture-backed founder. Take a look and subscribe: adamantventures.substack.com - I read it every week.

[YOUR NAME]

Asking for help can be tough

Okay, wow. That was kinda hard. As a Taiwanese-American kid growing up, I was taught to never inconvenience others.  I was expected to always pull my own weight and never be a burden. Those ideals really stuck with me throughout my life and professional career. Even my request for help in the first part of this newsletter would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Up until fairly recently, I believed I had to prove I could do everything on my own.

Because of this background, I rarely asked people for help. When I did, it was only as a last resort if I felt like I had exhausted every other avenue to solve the problem on my own.

I learned from failures how backwards this mindset is. Especially in startups, you don’t get a trophy for solving a problem on your own more slowly. Instead, I think the community rewards those who contribute to the pay-it-forward flywheel of receiving help and helping others.

The only way to get where you want to go quicker is by asking for help. The best entrepreneurs in the world understand that it takes a village.

How / When / Where? 

Learning how and when to ask for help as a founder can be a superpower because of all the places it can be applied in your journey. Where can it be applied? Nearly everywhere, but here are 3 categories that I find particularly important.

Weekly Fieldnotes👇

I used to roll my eyes at the importance of stage-specific investors…until I became a founder. It’s so important…

A lot to process in this short tweet. It’s worth sitting down to think about and understand…

Till next week. Stay adamant and be chased.

Jason

p.s. I’m a fan of web3 but this sarcastic exchange is not totally wrong…

In case you missed it…

Last week’s post about the close relationship between fundraising skills and recruiting resonated with a lot of founders:

Small asks!

If you thought this was helpful or enjoyable in anyway, I’d love for you to:

  • Forward this newsletter with others who would enjoy it

  • Follow me on Twitter where I’ve begun building in public (my course, my podcast, etc)!

  • Listen with a friend to Funded, my podcast that tells the rollercoaster stories of how founders raised millions (and subscribe🙏)

  • Ask me your fundraising questions so I can help you and cover them in a future issue